Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
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Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with poor health outcomes in adults. Resilience may mitigate this effect. There is limited evidence regarding how parents' ACEs and resilience may be associated with their children's health outcomes. ⋯ Parental history of ACEs is strongly associated with higher odds of their child having unanticipated healthcare reutilization after a hospital discharge, highlighting an intergenerational effect. Screening may be an important tool for outcome prediction and intervention guidance following pediatric hospitalization.
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Continuous pulse oximetry monitoring in stable patients with bronchiolitis is discouraged by national guidelines in order to reduce overuse, yet wide practice variation exists among hospitals. Understanding the association between monitoring overuse and hospital unit-level factors may identify areas for improvement. Conducted at 25 sites from the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings (PRIS) Network's Eliminating Monitoring Overuse (EMO) study, this substudy used data from 2,366 in-person observations of pulse oximetry use in patients with bronchiolitis to determine whether hospital unit-level factors were associated with variation in pulse oximetry use for patients in whom continuous monitoring is not indicated. ⋯ Monitoring rates were analyzed in a mixed-effects model that accounted for variation in baseline monitoring rates among hospitals and adjusted for covariates significantly associated with continuous pulse oximetry monitoring use in the primary study's analysis. Low burden units (<10% of total admissions) had a 2.16-fold increased odds of pulse oximetry overuse compared to high burden units (≥40% of total admissions) (95% CI, 1.27-3.69; P = .01). These results suggest that units caring for a lower percentage of patients with bronchiolitis are more likely to overuse pulse oximetry despite national guidelines.
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High costs of hospitalization may contribute to financial difficulties for some families. ⋯ Financial difficulties are common in families of hospitalized children. Low-income families and those who have children with chronic conditions are at particular risk; however, financial difficulties affect all subsets of the pediatric population. Hospitalization may be a prime opportunity to identify and engage families at risk for financial distress and medical financial burden.